States require school children to be vaccinated, but allow exemptions for families whose religious beliefs prohibit vaccination. Some 20 states also allow exemptions for parents whose “personal beliefs” prompt them to skip vaccination for their children. In 2004, 2.5% of children in those states were unvaccinated because of persomal belief exemptions, up from less than 1% in 1991, according to the article.

Last month in San Diego, 12 kids fell ill with the measles, a childhood disease made rare in this country by vaccination. Nine of the kids had skipped vaccination because their parents objected; the other three were too young to receive the vaccine. Most children recover from measles without lasting problems, but the disease causes death in one or two out of every 1,000 cases, and serious complications such as retardation in others, according to the CDC.

“The very success of immunizations has turned out to be an Achilles’ heel,” Mark Sawyer, a pediatrician and infectious disease specialist at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, told the NYT. “Most of these parents have never seen measles, and don’t realize it could be a bad disease so they turn their concerns to unfounded risks. They do not perceive risk of the disease but perceive risk of the vaccine.”

Vaccine Bonus: The federal government recently conceded that the vaccines Jon Poling’s daughter Hannah received as an infant may have combined with an underlying disorder to contribute to her neurological problems. Poling, an MD, is a supporter of vaccines — though he says there may be risks associated with them. Read our post on Poling.

Comments (5 of 58)

My wife refuses to get our child vaccinated. I want to get our kid vaccinated, but she will not budge. I do not know what else to do to convince her. I have tried reason, logic, and facts all she will say to that is that it is a conspiracy.. I do not want to get a court involved as it will be more harmful than helpful I feel, but i am at a loss as to what to do.

10:03 am December 24, 2010

parent77 wrote :

We choose not to vaccinate our children, our ourselves for that matter. Someone recently suggested I should worry about sending my kid to school because of "all the sick kids there". The majority of those sick kids are vaccinated, yet they are still sick. In reality, most diseases that have routine vaccinations are not deadly for the majority of those who contract them (ie influenza, varicella, rotovirus etc). In fact, it is good for us to get sick and develop natural immunity, which is far more powerful and longer lasting that immunity gained through vaccination. In my opinion, why risk the dangers of flu vaccines to protect a child against a disease that in all probability is not dangerous. Were talking rest and chicken soup here! The toxins in vaccines concern me, not only mercury but aluminum, formaldehyde, polysorbate 80, and MSG among others. I do not want my child injected with these poisons. In addition, I am concerned that the pharmaceutical companies have no accountability for their vaccines, and niether do the doctors that administer them. If something does happen, it will likely be dismissed as coincidence or have to be handled in the tax-funded vaccine court. Too many times, I have read about kids that were fine until vaccines, or about contaminated vaccines, just read about the swine flu epidemic in the 70's, in which dozens died from the vaccine and hundreds were paralyzed. Seriously, what is the point of a hep B vaccine at birth? How is a child going to contract that? The chance is near zero, and the vaccine has to be processed by that tiny body and had real and serious risks. NOOOOOOOOthank u! I must mention, there are diseases that have a real chance of being deadly or permanently damaging, and each parent must inform themselves so that they can make an educated decision about whether or not to vaccinate. We choose not to, and our child is happy, healthy and strong. You know, there is alot of power in the human body, which can be improved greatly through healthy diets and lifestyles. Tell me, where are all the huge increases in autoimmune disorders (asthma, some types of diabetis) and food allergies coming from. Seems reasonable to me that bombarding children with drugs designed to elicit an overactive immune response could certainly be connected. I do not think officials on the comittee that mandates vaccines should be allowed top have financial interests in vaccine companies. Many of them do, and some such as the former head of the CDC now work for pharma giants. I believe in science, but it must be well executed science, and for the safety of our children, please remove the known toxins from vaccines, and utilize proper studies to PROVE their safety prior to asking me to inject my child. I read a 2011 flu vaccine inserty that said it is unknown whether the drug harms the fetus, or a breast feeding baby, no studies were done, and it was tested on only 30 kids between 6 and 24 months old, yet they tell pregnant women to get it and parents to inject their infants.

10:41 pm July 7, 2009

sarah wrote :

Doctors are regular people too and I bet none of the doctors who say vaccines are fine can actually say that THEY THEMSELVES have truly tested this. They rely on someone else to tell them that it is safe, doctors are taught and few rarely question what is in their textbooks. Example my daughter's pediatrician actually told me I should buy produce from the supermarket and use a blender to make my own baby food for her...nevermind that this produce has a higher lever of PESTICIDE in it than bottled baby food.........it just goes to show you that you can't trust the medical/health advice given by "professionals" because even they are misinformed.

10:27 pm July 7, 2009

sarah wrote :

Well, this is a controversial topic. There are many things to consider but what we fail to actually know is the complete truth about how harmful and dangerous the side effects of vaccines are. I know I'm not the only one who has "researched" the dangerous side effects of vaccines or have read about the unexpected (from parents point of view) ingredients that are in vaccines, so like everyone else who has "researched" the subject online I found myself questioning the necessity of being vaccinated. However, a good point that was brought up is that vaccines prevent horrible/deadly diseases and we are not taking that into consideration. Another good point which was brought up was a commenter asking why people will believe anything they read online but not peer reviewed science....to this question, my personal answer would be Show me the peer reviewed science. I know that it is human nature to seek out evidence for pre-conceived notions about an idea or "truth" but I think like many many people out there, when it comes to this subject, I am willing to review and listen to ALL relevant and factual information regardless of whether it matches my assumptions, regardless of whether or not I like the answer because it's far too important of a subject to just leave open to debate or speculation.

2:28 pm November 11, 2008

Why Not Later wrote :

My question is why don't we all get vaccinated, but not until we are 5 or 6 years old.

If everyone is vaccinated then how will the infants catch the "fatal" diseases?

If we don't vaccinate until 5 or 6 then won't the autism debate end with a yes or no connection?